With the European commission president speculating that Britain might now join the euro, the financial crisis has transformed the continent's image of Gordon Brown. As chancellor, Brown used to relish his Eurosceptic image and regularly riled his continental colleagues by lecturing them on the superiority of the British economic model. He was, to put it mildly, not that popular in Europe. Now, having played a leading role in efforts to rescue the European economy, Brown's position is being reassessed and the consensus is that his contribution easily outweighed that, for example, of Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel.
But not everyone is convinced. In a little-noticed speech, Luxembourg's prime minister and finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, gave an alternative analysis of the financial crisis in which Gordon's contribution appears anything but heroic.
Although Luxembourg is the EU's second smallest nation, Juncker is the president of the Eurogroup (the group of EU member states that use the euro) and has been on the scene even longer than Gordon. For four years, Juncker said, those in charge of the Eurogroup have been warning the US about the risks of its deficit and over-leveraged property market. Two years ago, under the German presidency of the G7, there was a clear push for tougher market regulation. "The American and British governments had all the time they needed to accept the Eurogroup's proposals for a better regulation of the financial markets but that is something they specifically didn't want to do." Now, Juncker argued, it was "not appropriate for them to pretend to lead others."
In case anyone had missed the point, Juncker, who was speaking in French, made a point of breaking into English to deride Brown's claims to be a "leader." A hardcore Euro-federalist, Juncker has never been a fan of British diplomacy. He was furious in 2005 when London vetoed a proposed budget for the EU, leaving Luxembourg's presidency of the EU in tatters. Even so, given his ambitions for a top EU job, Juncker's comments were a little rash. Perhaps he decided that they were unlikely to come to the notice of Brown, as they were made in an evening debate in the European parliament.
A protocol vacuum
Whatever Juncker thinks, Gordon's appearance at a summit of Eurogroup leaders in Paris marked a moment at which history came full circle. In 1998, before the launch of the euro, Brown (then chancellor) loftily assumed that he would be invited to meetings of the Eurogroup even if Britain had no intention of joining the single currency. It came as a shock when it turned out that he was un-invited. Despite the best efforts of his spin doctors, Brown was photographed leaving a meeting of finance ministers while counterparts stayed on for Eurogroup discussions.
To smooth over such embarrassments a formula was invented under which Eurogroup meetings take place the evening before full meetings of finance ministers. That removes the requirement for those excluded from the single currency's grouping to have to leave the room. However, the hastily-convened meeting of the Eurozone leaders to which Brown was invited in Paris in October could not follow such a pattern, leaving something of a protocol vacuum. Brown's presentation to the meeting was relatively brief after which no one seemed to know what to do. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, thanked Brown and then asked him whether he wanted to stay or go. According to one of those present Brown looked a little uncomfortable, got up and left.
Supercomissioners to the rescue
With the appointment of a new European commission due next year, officials are bracing themselves for the return of a familiar debate: should there be super-commissioners? With 27 people around the table, the commission is not only an unwieldy institution but also one with wildly varied workloads. The Lisbon treaty was supposed to slim the size of the college but Ireland is pressing to keep one commissioner per member state as part of a package of concessions to help stage a second referendum in 2009. Hence the argument for strengthening big portfolios, perhaps by attaching to them a junior commissioner to whom lesser tasks could be delegated.
The problem is that, since all commissioners are equal, creating a hierarchy contravenes a fundamental principle. The commission president, José Manuel Barroso, has experimented with five "vice-presidents" of the European commission who have an enhanced status but no formal extra powers. The results have been less than impressive. The "first" vice-president is Margot Wallstrom of Sweden, who was supposed to help persuade the European public of the merits of the Lisbon treaty. Although she has a reputation as a good communicator, Wallstrom disappeared without trace when the Irish rejected the document in their referendum. In any case, every one of the vice-presidents has been outshone by Viviane Reding, commissioner for information society and media, who represents tiny Luxembourg.
